Engineers Aim to Bring "Cold Spray" 3D Printing to Space
Colby Hochmuth | January 23, 2015A team of engineers from Trinity College Dublin are leading a project to fine-tune “cold spray” (CS), a technology that deposits materials onto engineering components. The results from the €500,000 ($580,000) European Space Agency (ESA) project will be seen on spacecraft and on various transport vehicles and household applications.
This technology could advance other applications in space, especially 3D printing. With the right level of automation and robotic stage designs, this technique would be able to produce 3D components at a lower manufacturing cost, according to an announcement by the college.
“Once developed, the new form of cold spray manufacturing could unlock new capabilities in coated materials, as well as multi-material combinations which is currently not possible,” says Head of Strategic and Emerging Technologies Team at ESA, Professor David Jarvis.
CS accelerates powders of desired materials at supersonic speeds before firing them onto structures via a nozzle. With this technology it is possible to build coatings or simple geometrical components made out of a wide range of materials (metals, composites, polymers) around 1,000 times more quickly than any other Additive Manufacturing or 3D- Printing technologies allow, the researchers say.
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